Arturo García Ortiz (born July 19, 1974), better known under the ring name Rey Bucanero, is a Mexican professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) from 1992 to 2026. His ring name is Spanish for "Buccaneer King", which was originally reflected in his mask that featured a skull face and an eye patch. Ortiz was unmasked in 1999 and has worked unmasked ever since.
He is the nephew of Pirata Morgan, from whom he took the Pirate character, as well as the nephew of Hombre Bala and El Verdungo. While he has primarily worked for CMLL for most of his career, he has made appearances in the United States, most notably for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), as well as in Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).
Rey Bucanero, along with Último Guerrero and Tarzan Boy, were the founders of the long running Los Guerreros del Infierno ("The Infernal Warriors") group in 2001. Bucanero later left the group to become a member of La Peste Negra and eventually help found La Fuerza TRT with El Terrible and El Texano Jr., as well as the trio TGR (Terriblemente Guapo el Rey, "Terribly Handsome King"; with El Terrible and Shocker). For the majority of the first decade of the 21st century, Bucanero and Guerrero formed a very popular and successful tag team that was voted "Best Tag Team of the Decade (2000–2009)" in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards.
In CMLL, Bucanero has held the CMLL World Tag Team Championship four times, the NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship twice, and the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship and CMLL World Trios Championship once. He has also won CMLL's Torneo Gran Alternativa and Leyenda de Azul tournaments.
Arturo García Ortiz was born on July 19, 1974, in Mexico City. Three of Ortiz's uncles were professional wrestlers and often took him to wrestling shows when he was younger. He is the nephew of Aurelio Ortiz (better known under the ring names Hombre Bala and later "The Monster"), Pedro Ortiz (best known as Pirata Morgan) and Francisco Ortiz (best known under the name "El Verdungo"), all of whom inspired him to become a wrestler. García is the cousin of professional wrestlers El Hijo de Pirata Morgan (Antheus Ortiz Chávez), Pirata Morgan Jr. (real name not revealed), Hombre Bala Jr. (real name not revealed) and the most recent wrestler to work as "The Monster" (real name not revealed). García moved in with his uncle Pedro Ortiz when his parents divorced. From that point on, his uncle brought him to Arena México, the home of Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), for whom Ortiz worked at the time. While spending time backstage, he would be introduced to the other side of professional wrestling, being trained from a very early age by all three of his uncles.
Ortiz was formerly married to fellow wrestler La Diabólica. They divorced in 2007 following an incident concerning the custody of their children. A son of theirs' wrestles with a combination of his parents names as Rey Diablo.
Ortiz made his in-ring debut on November 18, 1991, at the age of 17, as the wrestling masked character "Rey Bucanero Jr." ("Buccaneer King Jr."). Records are unclear if there was a wrestler known as "Rey Bucanero".
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (1992–2026)
After initially working for the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) in Japan, he made his debut for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) on September 20, 1992, teaming with El Acma in a loss to Olímpico and Olímpus. He performed as "Rey Bucanero Jr." until 1994, working primarily smaller shows in Puebla and other smaller venues. In 1995, he briefly wrestled as "El Hijo de Pirata Morgan" and "Pirata Morgan Jr.", but that stint did not last long, leaving those names behind him in case his uncle Pedro Ortiz's sons wanted to follow in his footsteps when they got older and wanted to wrestle as Pirata Morgan Jr. and El Hijo de Pirata Morgan; he instead shortened his ring name to "Rey Bucanero".
In 1996, CMLL paired Bucanero with Emilio Charles Jr. for that year's Gran Alternativa tournament, which the duo won by defeating Héctor Garza and Mr. Niebla in the finals. The two were joined by El Satánico and, at Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth ("Homage to Salvador Lutteroth") on March 21, 1997, the trio defeated Apolo Dantés, Black Warrior and Dr. Wagner Jr. in a tournament to win the vacant CMLL World Trios Championship. Their reign only lasted 39 days, as they lost the championship to Atlantis, Lizmark and Mr. Niebla on April 29. On July 17, 1999, he was one of eight competitors in a Ruleta de la Muerte ("Roulette of Death") or "Losers advance" tournament. After losing the first two matches, he faced Shocker in the finals, with both wrestlers putting their mask on the line under Lucha de Apuestas, or "bet match", rules. Shocker pinned Rey Bucanero, forcing Bucanero to remove his mask and never wear it again.
In 1999, El Satánico reformed the group Los Infernales, recruiting Último Guerrero and Rey Bucanero; Rey's uncle Pirata Morgan had been part of the original Los Infernales. Working with Satánico allowed both Bucanero and Guerrero to rise up the ranks and develop into a regular tag team in CMLL. In the summer of 2000, Bucanero and Guerrero were one of sixteen teams entered into a tournament for the vacant CMLL World Tag Team Championship, in which they were victorious, lastly defeating Villano IV and Mr. Niebla. At the same time, Satánico had been working a storyline against Tarzan Boy, which was used to turn both Bucanero and Guerrero against Satánico. Bucanero, Guerrero and Tarzan Boy claimed that they deserved the name Los Infernales and that Satánico was holding them back. In response, Satánico recruited two other wrestlers to even the numbers, which on TV was presented as if he used his "Satanic powers" to turn wrestler Rencor Latino into Averno (Spanish for "Hell") and transformed Astro Rey Jr. into a character known as Mephisto. When Tarzan Boy was injured and unable to wrestle, Bucanero and Guerrero recruited Máscara Mágica to even the numbers. The storyline between the two factions reached its high point at the CMLL 68th Anniversary Show, where all seven wrestlers faced off in a steel cage match. The stipulation of the match was that the winning side would gain the rights to use the name Los Infernales while the loser on the opposite side would be forced to unmask or have their hair shaved off. In the end, El Satánico pinned Máscara Mágica, forcing him to unmask. After losing the match Guerrero, Bucanero and Tarzan Boy became known collectively as Los Guerreros del Infierno (The Infernal Soldiers).
Los Guerreros del Infierno (2001–2010)
Bucanero and Guerrero entered their next feud with Negro Casas and El Hijo del Santo over the CMLL World Tag Team Championship. After a match with an inconclusive finish in October, Los Guerreros lost to Santo and Casas on November 2, 2001. On May 31, 2002, Guerrero and Bucanero regained their tag team title from Santo and Casas, becoming three-time champions. Los Guerreros del Infierno then began feuding with Vampiro Canadiense and Shocker, whom they successfully defended their title against; however, Bucanero lost his hair to Vampiro in a Luchas de Apuestas match in December. In 2003, they retained the championship against Vampiro and Lizmark Jr. and Casas and Perro Aguayo Jr., but were defeated in December by the team of Shocker and the newly arrived L.A. Park. Los Guerreros regained the tag team championship in early 2004, but Bucanero suffered a knee injury and was temporarily replaced by Black Warrior; Los Guerreros lost the tag team title to Atlantis and Blue Panther on June 25.
Bucanero and new Los Guerreros member Olímpico challenged Atlantis and Panther for the title at the first Arena México show of 2005, but lost when Olímpico injured his neck while attempting a dive. After Atlantis turned heel and joined the group, they became known as Los Guerreros de la Atlántida; it was teased that Bucanero would break up with Guerrero, but Bucanero stayed with the group and Los Guerreros feuded with Perro Aguayo Jr.'s Los Perros del Mal faction into 2006. At the end of April, he teamed with Tarzan Boy to win a double hair vs. hair match against Mr. Águila and Damián 666 in the main event of 50. Aniversario de Arena México. The following week, he and Atlantis lost to Último Dragón and Keiji Mutoh after Atlantis hit Bucanero by accident. In the following weeks, Bucanero kept having trouble with his teammates and magazines hinted at a possible face turn. Later that month, Averno and Mephisto turned on him during a match, which Tarzan Boy and Guerrero also did shortly after, ripping his tights and signifying he was no longer a member of Los Guerreros. On July 14, he defeated Guerrero for his CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship, ending Guerrero's three-and-a-half-year title reign. By early 2010, Bucanero returned to Los Guerreros del Atlantida.